As an economist, Krueger is known in macroeconomics and trade, famously coining the term rent-seeking in a 1974 article.[3][4] Furthermore, she has frequently criticised the U.S. sugar subsidies.[5] She has published extensively on policy reform in developing countries, the role of multilateral institutions in the international economy, and the political economy of trade policy. In her 1996 Presidential address to the American Economic Association, she explored the lack of congruence between successful trade and development policies enacted worldwide and prevailing academic views.

After leaving the Bank, she taught at Duke University from 1987–1993, when she joined the faculty of Stanford University as Herald L. and Caroline L. Ritch Professor in Humanities and Sciences in the Department of Economics.[1] She was also the founding Director of Stanford's Center for Research on Economic Development and Policy Reform; and a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution.

Struggling with Success: Challenges Facing the International Economy (2012)[edit]

The 1950s and the 1960s brought the neoclassical argument for open trade under attack because it had ignored (as Krueger quotes it) “dynamic considerations” and they stated that open trade was “static” (p. 51).[6] Throughout the 1990s there was a general consensus that open trade was anything but static and the benefits were largely “dynamic” (p51[6]).

In the book, Struggling with Success (2012), Anne Krueger takes a defensive stance on globalization and the role it has played on improving the world and the lives of the people on it as a whole. She states that, “…globalization, has preceded at a rapid pace since about 1800 and the degree of interdependence has greatly increased (p 24[6]).” During the same time the industrial countries (whose economies were integrating) saw rapid growth in the quality of life for poor nations (p 24[6]). Krueger’s main focus is on the causes of the Asian “Tigers” growth, the rise of government regulation after and slightly before WWII and (regulations) inevitable fall, and how further deregulation improved the world economy.

Krueger places emphasis on the need to remove trade barriers and to deregulate domestic economies in the book Struggling with Success. Krueger says a lot of credit must be given to tools like “producer subsidy equivalent” in helping to remove trade barriers. “That tool permitted negotiations to begin restricting and dismantling agricultural protection (p 63[6]).” These effective protection and cost benefit analysis gave politicians “empirical quantification, however rough, of their relevant magnitudes (p 63[6]).” Krueger states that research results should be “observable, hopefully quantifiable, and recognizable by the policy maker (p 64[6]).” The most prevalent danger for economist is for their theories to be misinterpreted by policy makers (p 64[6]).

Ultimately, regulation has negative effects of the market in the country imposing the regulation and may have spillover effects on other countries trading with the nation imposing the regulations (p85[6]). She points to the interest equalization tax that caused the move of financial capital from the New York to London, Sarbanes-Oxley caused corporate headquarters to be moved from the US, and anti-dumping duties caused the move of computer assembly firms (p85[6]). She concludes here by saying that unprecedented economic growth from open trade regimes led to an increased appreciation of supply side economics.